Bretwalda Books: 85 books

Key note: The Battle of Albuera was one of the bloodiest, and yet least decisive of the battles fought in the Peninsular War. In the spring of 1811, the French armies in Portgual were in headlong retreat, falling back into Spain to regroup. As they fell back they left a powerful garrison in...

For six weeks in the spring of 1812 Wellingston’s Anglo-Spanish army marched and countermarched across western Spain as it sought to find away past the French army of Marshal Marmont. Their chance came at Salamanca.The hilly country around Salamanca had bad roads and poor sightlines, a fact...

The Retreat to Corunna was a spectacular defeat for the British Army, yet it managed to save its reputation by carrying out one of the great fighting retreats of military history. In 1808 a British army under Sir John Moore advanced from its base at Lisbon into Spain to aid Spanish armies fighting...

The Battle of Oporto was key early British victory in the Peninsular War that ensured that the troops commanded by Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) would not be driven out by the French any time soon.In March 1809 the French under Marshal Soult defeated a British-Portuguese army...

The Peninsular War was a savage war fought as part of the Napoleonic Wars that convulsed Europe for more than a decade. They saw set piece battles, guerrilla campaigns, sieges and every form of warfare known to the early 19th century.The Peninsular War began when the citizens of Madrid rebelled...

The Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo was a savage affair, fought as part of the Peninsular War that pitched Britain’s Duke of Wellington against Napoleon’s French Marshals.The fortress city of Ciudad Rodgrio blocked the route that Wellington wished to use to march his combined British-Portuguese...

The Battle of Barrosa was an unexpected British victory in the Peninsular War. Caught strung out on the march on a mountain road by a superior French army, the British should have been annihilated, but instead gained a stunning victory. In the spring of 1811, the French were laying siege to...

A book dedicated to the only battle ever fought in Rutland - the Battle of Losecoat Field, a turning point in the Wars of the Roses. In 1470 the Yorkist King Edward IV was apparently secure on his throne, but unknown to him he was about to be betrayed by his own brother, George of Clarence, and the...

A book dedicated to the four sieges of Newark during the English Civil War, the last of which marked the collapse of Royalist power in the Midlands. In 1642 King Charles I summoned Newark to support him, which it did with men, money and munitions. The city and castle where thereafter a loyal bastion...

In the chaos that engulfed Britain after the “Age of Arthur”, one battle stands out. This was a key battle fought in the heart of the Dark Ages for control of southern Britain that pitched the King of Kent against the leader of the Romano-Britons. The victory won here decided the fate of Britain...

In 1940 Hitler’s Germany launched an unprovoked attack on little Denmark. The campaign was meticulously planned and over in hours. It saw the first ever use of paratroops in war, the first German amphibious landings of the war and the threat of terror bombing of cities and towns. The Fall...

With British & American troops again in Afghanistan, this book looks back to a previous conflict when Islamic fundamentalists again sought to overthrow the government of Afghanistan and British troops went in to pacify the area. In September 1879 rebels against Emir Yaqub Khan massacred...

A book about the bloody Battle of Northampton, a key turning point in the Wars of the Roses fought in 1460. In 1460 the Yorkists in the Wars of the Roses seemed doomed. The Duke of York was in exile, his friends in hiding and his army scattered. Then Edward, Yorks dashing son, returned from France...

A book about the historic Battle of Bannockburn, the great triumph by Robert Bruce of Edward II of England that won independence for Scotland. The book is being released to mark the 700th anniversary of the battle and to coincide with the Scottish referendum on independence.With most of Scotland in...